Going on a mission trip had been weighing on mind for a while. Mission trips are not a new thing to me. Every couple of years my parents go on a 10 day mission trip to the Dominican Republic where they would build a church or a pastor’s house and engage with the local church. They have been doing this for over 20 years now. As a family we went to the Dominican for a combination vacation and mission trip. We got to repaint one of the churches built several years prior by my parents’ group. I also went on a one week mission trip in Shiprock, New Mexico when I was in ninth grade. I...

It’s pouring down rain; we’re sitting in the main room under the metal tin roof, and it is extremely loud. Rain drops are even leaking through the roof, leaving little spots of this precious wet substance on my journal, smearing the black words. We’re inside of a bass drum, with the orchestra’s Conductor pointing to the cloud percussionists, telling them to beat the drum thunderously. And I am thankful. I am thankful to be out of drought-stricken California and back in the places where life is sweated out under the equatorial sun; where hunger pangs are satisfied by the...

I was having troubles getting into my blog, but I now can finally post from last week Monday!    Wow. First thing is first, God is so good! Our first few days we were in Georgia and had training camp & at first I had no idea what to expect. Would we be doing activities, having only bible study? But wow was I wrong, it was plain life changing. We worshiped daily, even sometimes twice a day and I felt so connected to God during those times. Throughout the days we had different speakers sharing stories and Gods word that felt very personal and to the heart, which made me feel comfortable...

God showed up. God shows up.  God spoke. And God still speaks.    God spoke to our team as a whole and as individuals at training camp. Some of our team had never heard God’s voice before; whether that’s due to not ever having listened, or simply not knowing what God’s voice sounds like, people heard God’s voice. Because God showed up.   Because God shows up.   James 5:17-18 reads, “Elijah was a human just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed,...

Well, we made it to Nicaragua! Praise The Lord, am I right?! After four days of intense training we are here ready to serve God with everything we’ve got. While at training camp we had many sessions, some of them were informational like good tips for blogging (quite helpful) and cautionary tales about staying safe (also helpful). But more importantly we learned and were reminded that our identity is in Christ, that the Holy Spirit dwells inside us, that we must surrender everything to The Lord on a daily basis, and that hearing God’s voice is in fact possible and very powerful. All...

Throughout my Christian walk, and here in Nicaragua, God has revealed to me the power of prayer. Without prayer, how would we communicate to God? How would our faith grow? How would change come? God yearns for us to express our need of Him to Him. The action we take in relationship to God is prayer. If there’s no action, how do you expect to see results? If we aren’t in open communication with God daily, and not expressing to Him our need of Him, what is our faith? “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made...